Nissan to unveil plans for Britain's first electric car battery gigafactory

Nissan's Sunderland plant has about 6,000 staff and supports almost 30,000 jobs in its supply chain. Professor David Bailey, an automotive industry expert at Birmingham University, said: “This is a huge boost for the UK automotive industry, guaranteeing Nissan’s presence in the UK and its supply chain for at least the medium term.” Richard Perberdy, head of automotive at KPMG, said: "It is not just about the Nissan's batteries and electric vehicles. Former Jaguar Land Rover boss Sir Ralf Speth was one of the first to signal just how important they are, warning: “If batteries go out of the UK, then automotive production will go out of the UK.” Carlos Tavares, head of Stellantis, has also highlighted the need for batteries - which account for about 40pc of the total cost of an electric car - to be manufactured near the plants where they are installed into vehicles. Assuming that once the pandemic eases UK car production returns to long-term average rates of about 1.5m vehicles a year, and if those cars are to be battery powered, Britain’s car industry will need about 100 gigawatt hours of annual battery production. How far Britain lags in the electric car race was underlined on Monday when China’s Envision outlined a €2bn plan to build a battery plant in northern France to supply Renault.